Should Direct Democracy Be More Widely Used in the Uk?

Government and Politics Megan Barry
‘Should direct democracy be more widely used in the UK?’ Direct democracy is a form of government in which all laws are created by a general vote of society. This means that political decisions are put forward to the people as they are the ones who are going to be directly affected by the outcome of the decision. An example of direct democracy used occasionally in society is referendums. A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a single political question which has been referred to them for a direct decision. Within this essay I am going to be arguing whether direct democracy should be used more widely by weighing up the benefits and the disadvantages of direct democracy and the result on the general public.
One argument for direct democracy being used more extensively in the UK is that it gives a more advanced and more accurate representation of the public’s attitude on an issue raised in parliament. Many local citizens do not often communicate with their MP; occasionally it can be difficult for Parliament to come to a decision that accurately reflects public opinion. MPs have to make choices bases what they personally feel is right and is not always entirely what the public want. Referendums give a distinct result that reflects the public’s demands. This is better as the public are satisfied and there is little need for ‘guess-work’ by the government. An example is this year’s Scottish Referendum. The culmination of the referendum exhibited that the slight majority of the public did not want independence; therefore it demonstrated that no immediate action was needed on the independence issue. If the government had made the decision on behalf of the public and chose to be independent then the majority of the public would not have been satisfied with…...

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